Why selling to CX leaders is so hard (and how to get it right)

I’ve worked in and led CX teams for over a decade at various size companies, from early-stage startups to established enterprise brands. At the same time, I’ve used that experience to do content marketing for CX SaaS companies and BPOs.

Along the way, I’ve realized that selling to CX leaders is not like selling to prospects in other industries and spaces.

Here’s why, along with some experienced advice on how you can get your sales and marketing motion right when you’re reaching out to a CX audience.

1. CX leaders can see through your marketing hype

They may not have x-ray vision, but CX leaders have a keen eye for spotting marketing fluff.

They aren’t fooled by the flash and the hype.

A great current example of this is the flood of generative AI-powered tools and features hitting the CX SaaS market right now.

ChatGPT hit the scene (quickly followed by plenty of other gen-AI models) and virtually every CX company on the planet started integrating it. Within weeks, websites were flooded with claims like this:

• Reduce your contact volume by up to 80%

• Cut your customer support costs by 50% in <30 days!

• Increase ticket deflection overnight!

It’s like the classic infomercial guy: “But wait, there’s more!”

But here’s the thing about CX leaders:

They’ve already seen what’s behind the curtain. They know the wizard of Oz is just a man with some flashy tools and fog machine.

That’s because they’ve seen it throughout their careers.

I’m painting with broad brush strokes here, but many marketing and sales teams overpromise on product functionality and capabilities, and then woefully underdeliver.

And CX knows about it, because the customer support agents are the ones who catch all the flak for it.

See it enough times, and CX leaders eventually develop a skepticism towards flashy presentations and grandiose claims.

Instead, CX leaders look for substance and authenticity.

Here’s how Erica Clayton, VP of Artist Support at TuneCore, puts it:

“I don’t want to be a cog in your sales machine. I want to be a partner - my success is your success as a vendor, and our industry runs on referrals. So when the vibes are off, my network is gonna know. When I’m picking and breaking up with partners, it’s after lots of chats with references to make sure I know what I’m getting myself into.“

Before kicking off a free trial or signing a contract, CX leaders want to know exactly what your product can and cannot do for them.

They want to see that you’re an active partner. That you have skin in the game, that you’re going to help them succeed, and that they can trust you to deliver on your promises.

Using lots of case studies and customer references can help you get on a CX leader’s short list, but once they’re actively engaging with you, nothing beats you acting like a meaningful partner and proving you can solve real problems.

2. CX leaders are thinking about the big picture

You may have the slickest product in the world, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.

More than anyone else you’d ever sell to, CX leaders are thinking about your onboarding plan, your support experience, your future product roadmap, and more.

And — let’s be real — many companies don't put as much thought into those areas as they should. And they certainly don’t emphasize them in their marketing content.

One example of a company who gets it right is Help Scout.

Through and through, since its very inception, Help Scout has been customer-first.

They’re creating tools for support teams, and they’ve wisely chosen to prioritize providing great support, useful resources for support leaders (even resources that don’t talk about or actively sell Help Scout), and so on.

No company is perfect, but you’d be hard pressed to find an experienced CX leader who hasn’t heard of Help Scout and found value in their blog, newsletter, or other content resources

Note: We’ve written for Help Scout over the years, so while that may mean we’re biased, I still wholeheartedly believe they’re one of the best examples of getting this right.

If you want to follow Help Scout’s lead and build a trusted brand in the CX space, our content writing service might be the perfect fit. We’re the only niche content marketing agency created by CX leaders for CX companies. Our expert-driven content enables you to massively accelerate building your trust and authority.

3. CX teams are usually very budget-constrained

A sad reality of the modern business world is that CX teams are often under-resourced and under-appreciated.

Getting approval for a new tool can be a big challenge, if not an outright impossibility. CX leaders are constantly trying to stretch their budget, so they’re often very hesitant about making new purchases or signing long-term contracts.

And since they’re already skeptical of most marketing, this makes the sales process even harder.

If you’ve built trust over time through your content and they know you can deliver, it helps. But you can you also get super practical by building out tools that make justifying purchasing your product or service simpler, like an ROI calculator.

(Psst..I’m not aware of any CX companies that have a solid ROI calculator out there — this is a massive opportunity you should take advantage of)

One non-CX example of this is Hootsuite’s ROI calculator:

It’s super clean and easy to use, and it provides a great starting point for a prospect to have conversations with their boss or CFO on the potential impact of using your product.

If you’re creating your own version of an ROI calculator for a CX sales process, keep it mind that it’s not always as easy for CX leaders to get clear data on things.

Every company has its own nuances on how it calculates metrics like CSAT, first contact resolution, and cost-per-ticket. Your ROI calculator (or other similar tools) need to be flexible enough that any CX leader can take advantage of it.

How to sell software and services to CX leaders (the right way)

Given these challenges, how can you effectively sell to CX leaders and their teams?

Here’s my recommendation — backed up by over a decade of CX experience, 7+ years of content marketing experience, and a vast number of conversations with friends who lead CX teams.

Be transparent about what you can (and can’t) do

The CX world is a community.

If you stick in CX long enough, you create friends and connections across a wide range of industries and companies. Communities like Support Driven and ElevateCX play a huge part in this, as do in-person conferences.

Here’s the point:

If you’re making big promises and failing to deliver, word’s going to get out.

You can’t lie about what your product does and just sweep it under the rug.

So be transparent about what your product can do.

What big meaningful problems can you actually solve for a CX team? Own those problems. Build everything around it.

When your product can’t solve a specific problem, be honest about it. Build out a library of companies you can refer those prospects to — and if those companies have partnership programs, you can even still profit from it.

And don’t forget to keep track of the features and functionality you’re missing. Those could be great items to add to your product roadmap in the future.

Invest in your own customer experience

Customer experience leaders care about your customer experience.

Feels obvious, right?

Yet it’s shocking how many SaaS and BPO companies don’t prioritize building out an incredible experience for their customers.

If you have a crappy customer experience today, you’re always going to struggle to sell to CX leaders.

In a similar vein, companies that actually have great customer experiences rarely feature it in their marketing content and sales conversations. If this is you and you’re selling to CX teams, you’re putting an unnecessary major obstacle in your way.

If you’re a marketing or sales leader reading this, here’s what you can do:

• Connect with your peers in CX ASAP. Understand how they’re performing, especially relative to your competitors. Understand what your customers care about and what the CX team needs to improve.

• Advocate for your CX team. Once you know what’s needed, throw your weight into getting the CX team the help they need. Marketing and Sales have a more direct impact on driving new revenue, so they often have a louder voice at the executive table. Use your voice to help everyone understand how investing in your CX team will lead to improvements across the board – in conversion rates, in retention, and more.

• Audit your existing content and sales collateral. Where can you highlight the great experiences you’ve created for customers? What case studies, customer interviews, or CSAT survey responses can you pull verbatims from to spotlight? While your product or service should still take center stage, the support and experience you’re providing should never be far away. In fact, the further someone gets down the funnel, the more important it is you’re highlighting your experience — and not in generic terms, but with real customers’ words.

Offer a lengthy free trial and great onboarding

When your budget is tight, generous free trials become your best friends.

What ‘generous’ means will depend on your product and business. Maybe it’s a generous amount of time, or maybe your free trial is jam-packed with features.

If you’re selling in the CX space, I can’t understate how impactful a great free trial can be. Pair it up with effective customer onboarding that helps users see the impact your product has quickly, and you’ve got a winning situation.

When a free trial user can point their boss or CFO to meaningful, real impact your product has already had — before spending a dime — it makes building a business case easy.

CX leaders are a special breed

I love the customer experience space. Over the past decade plus, I’ve built relationships with so many incredible people.

At the same time, my experience in content marketing has also made it clear that many marketers and sales leaders miss the mark when it comes to selling to CX leaders.

Greg Collins, VP of Revenue at Boldr (an awesome outsourcing company), put it this way:

I propose the problem statement is the sales motion: sales is about HELPing your clients, and CX leaders only engage with those that can help. CX leaders aren't hard to sell to, if your intent is to actually help serve their team & their customers.

There’s the rub.

Are CX leaders hard to sell to?

If you’re using a conventional sales and marketing approach that’s heartless, yes. If you make fake promises, yes.

And if you don’t invest in building a great customer experience yourself, then definitely, yes.

But if you prioritize helping them, build partnerships, solve meaningful problems, and tailor your go-to-market approach to their unique needs?

Then they won’t just be your customers. They’ll be some of the best people you’ve ever worked with.

Heck, they may even become your friends.